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m\ T. L. ANDERSON, OF 31ISS0URr, 



THE PRINCIPLES MD POLICY OF THE BLACK REPUBLICAN PARTY, 



THE DUTY OF WHIGS AXD AMERICANS IN THE APPROACHING 
STATE AND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF EEPKE8ENTATIVES, FEBBUAKT 16, 1860. 



Mr. Anderson, of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, the present political aspect of 
tiiis country, and the condition of parties, evidently demand that a Representa- 
tive occupying the independent position which I have the honor to do upon this 
floor — responsible to no party ; bouad by no political organization ; controlled 
by none of the political elements of the country ; responsible alone to an intel- 
ligent and independent constituency, who have confided to my guardianship, in 
part, their great national interest ; trusting alone to the honest and patriotic 
exercise of the discretionary powers with which they invested me — should, at 
least, indicate to them, and perhaps, to the country, the views which he enter- 
tains, and the principles by which his legislative action will be guided, in refer- 
ence to the gr«at questions that now agitate the public mind. 

I regret to say, sir, that in no period in the history of this vast Confederacy 
has the great '' patriotic heart" been more violently agitated and more intensely 
concerned, in reference to the future destiny of this Republic, than it is to-day. 
The fearful elements of discord that now disturb its peace and tranquility, are 
urged on with a degree of bitterness, malignity and recklessness, superinducing 
an alienation of feeling, interest and sentiment, between the two sections of the 
Union, that must ere long, unless arrested, result in a train of the most, terrible 
and disastrous consequences that has ever before afflicted this great nation. Pe- 
riods of excitement and agitation have often occurred since the foundation of 
this Government. A glowing and patriotic devotion to the Union, however, 
soon caused them to pass away. The wounds that had been inflicted, were 
rapidly healed, and the great body-politic again and again moved on with its 
accustomed vigor, quietude and harmony. But, sir, I greatly fear that the ele- 
ments of malevolence and sectional strife, now abroad in this laud, are of a more 
permanent and terrific character. They have been directed and controlled by 
political demagogues and fanatics, of a consummate tact and ability. Mercenary 
men, who have slowly and gradually infused into the public mind their per- 
nicious and destructive principles, and who are now on the eve of attacking, 
through the machinery of flie General Government, with a bold and defiant 
hand, the great citadel of our rights, the Constitution of the United States — the 
great written compact by which alone the rights and equality of the sovereign 
States of this Confederacy can be preserved. 

lilted by Lemuel Towers, at §1 per hundred copies. 



2 •'^^^ 

Sir, at that eventful period when the Constitution was adopted by the fathers 
of the Republic, and accepted by the sovereioju States of the Union, slavery — 
negro slavery — was an existing institution in twelve of the thirteen States of the 
Confederacy. A large majority of the members that composed the convention 
and originated and formed that federative compact, were the absolute owners of 
slaves. It was a domestic institution that had been introduced and established 
by the Puritan fathers, and perpetuated and fostered by their descendants. It 
was regarded, at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, as one of 
the institutions of the country, to be preserved and protected by that sacred 
instrument. From that day to this, it has received the sanction, and protection 
of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the Federal Govern- 
ment. It was an institution in regard to which, all of the States, possessed the 
power, in the exercise of their individual sovereignty, to dispose of whenever 
the people, in their wisdom, might deem it proper and expedient so to do. We 
know that the climate and productions of the North rendered slave labor un- 
protitable, and that it was the instinctive principle of gain, the philanthropy of 
dollars and cents, by which they were impelled to rid themselves of what they 
now, with " pretentious piety," call the sin of slavery, " the sum of all villainies." 
They effected it under the disguise of what they falsely termed gradual emanci- 
pation ; the true definition of which was the grant of sufficient time to enable 
most of them to sell their slaves to the planters of the southern States. That 
being accomplished, many of them now, in a spirit of pharisaical zeal and wild 
fjmaticism, insist that slavery shall be abolished in all the States of the Union ; 
that it is an "inhuman and infamous institution," "a relic of barbarism, alike 
offensive to civilization and Christianity." 

These men of the Noith, whose fathers were originally responsible for the 
introduction of slavery ; who clamored for and carried on the African slave 
trade up to 1808, the last day of its constitutional limitation ; who invested the 
proceeds of human beings sold into perpetual bondage, in land, houses and 
stocks ; whose wealth, power and influence have been principally augmented by 
slave labor, and who would literally starve without the commercial intercourse 
of the slave States, are now demanding, that we shall surrender our slave pi'O- 
perty, to satisfy their ideas of humanity and freedom. Is not such demand pre- 
sumptuously unreasonable, and insolently unjust? They declare, however, that 
it is not their ])urpose to interfere with the relation of master and slave in the 
States. Now, I propose to test their sincerity by their conduct and acts. 

The great compact entered into between the sovereign States of the Confed- 
eracy, and which each was bound faithfully to observe, declares that: 

"'So person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into 
another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such 
service or labor; but shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such ser- 
vice or labor may be due." 

Now, I affirm that it is the duty of the northern States, claiming the protec- 
tion of the General Government, and participating in all the blessings that flow 
from it, to act up to all the requirements of the Constitution, and yield a hearty 
assent and enforcement to all its obligations. This proposition, I presume, will 
not be denied, by any honest, patriotic. Union-loving citizen of the non-slave- 
holding States. And yet, strange to tell, this provision of the Constitution, so 
essentially and indispensably necessary to the protection of southern property, 
and without which the Constitution never would have been ratified, has been 
either publicly and defiantly violated or utterly disregarded in the northern 
States. 

Ill 1850, Congress, in the exercise of this power, and with a view to the protec- 
tion of slave property, enacted what is termed the " fugitive slave act." In less than 
ten years one half of the non-slaveholding States have, by legislation, attempted — 
and that successfully — to prevent the execution of this law, and deny to us the 



means provided by the Coustitution for the recapture of our fugitive slaves. Is 
not this a palpable violation of good faith on their part ? Is it not a great enor- 
mity, of which we of the South have the right to complain — bitterly complain ; 
and which should, very naturally and justly, lessen our respect for the people of 
the North, and create in our bosoms feelings of indignation and enmity towards 
them? Suppose the horses and cattle of the people of Illinois, a State adjoin- 
ing my district/ should escape from their owners to Missouri, and we should 
refuse to surrender them, and absolutely seek, by legislation, to prevent theni 
from the recovery of their property, would they not have a right to complain ? 
Would they not be justified, in the estimation of all civilized and Christian peo- 
ple on earth, iu denouncing us as thieves and robbers? Would it be possible 
for them to entertain for us sentiments of common respect, or feelings of ordi- 
nary friendship? Would they not rejjard us unfit for the association of honora- 
ble men ? Would they not cease all intercourse with us, socially and commer- 
cially ? Can the people of the North, then, expect us to treat them differently, 
while they continue to deprive us of our slave property, by legislation f^nd under- 
ground railroads? The Black Republican party, however, undertake to justify 
such conduct, by the assertion that negroes, being human beings, are not prop- 
erty, and therefore entitled to their freedom. 

This pretended justification, false in theory and cruel in practice, cannot avail 
them, without deliberately, willfully, and knowingly trampling the Constitu- 
tion under their feet. It is the only protection we have afi'orded to us in 
the Union, for the preservation of our property, and if they refuse to yield to 
us this constitutional guaranty, can they, ought they, to expect'us to remain in 
the Union and submit to it ? Mr. Webster, in his speech at Capon Springs, 
Virginia, iu 1851, said : 

"I do not hesitate to saj' and repeat that if the northern States refuse willfully and 
deliberately to carry iuto effect that part of the Constitution which respects the restora- 
tijan of fugitive slaves, the South would no longer be bound to observe the compact. A 
bargain broken on one side is broken on all sides." 

Were they situated as we are — entertaining the same views in re'ation to 
negro slavery that we of the South do — would they submit to it? Is it not 
taxing our patriotism to an extent that we cannot endure and retain our sel^- 
respect? Do they not suppose that it is humiliating to the South to behold 
them in the full enjoyment, of the protection and benefits of the Constitution and 
Union, and they denied them ? Do they think it reasonable to conclude that 
American citizens, who have been taught from their infancy to know and ap- 
preciate their rights, and to guard them with a vigilant and determined purpose, 
to allow no violation of them, will long submit to such wrong and oppression ? 
If they do, I can only say that in my judgment they are most certainly and 
fatally deceived. 

I have the honor of representing, in part, a State bounded on the north, east, 
and west by free States; my district extends one hundred and twenty miles 
along the line of Illinois ; my constituents lose every year not less than thirty 
or forty thousand dollars' worth of slave property. They are persuaded and 
aided, iu most instances, by the abolition Republicans of Illinois. It is very 
seldom that we ever recapture one after he crosses the Mississippi river, the di- 
viding line between Missouri and Illinois. Occasionally they are arrested by 
some honest, constitution-loving Democrat, and returned to their masters ; but 
nineteen- twentieths are never recovered. If they reach the abolition city of 
Chicago, they are forever lost; for it is as much as a man's life is Avorth to at- 
tempt to reclaim his property after it gets into the hands of the abolition thieves 
that infest that city. 

Now, Mr. Chaii'man, permit me to remark — for I do not intend to argue the 
question; we of the South think that the time for argument is past — that we 
honestly and conscientiously believe that the very best condition in which the 



4 

African can be plained, is that of slavery. We believe tbat a rnaater is necessary 
to the support, comfort, and happiness of the alave — necessary to the promotion 
of his highest interests as a moral, social, and religious bting. We are satis- 
fied tbat the liistory of the African race proves most incontestably that they are 
uutit, intellectually and morally, for self-government — for the enjoyment of civil 
liberty. Our knowledge and observation as to the effect produced by freedom 
on those manumitted in our midst (and -we have a much larger number of free 
negroes in the slave States than you have in the free States) establish, incoutro- 
vertibly, that the greatest misfortune that can befall the negro, in a great ma- 
jority of cases, is to have bestowed upon him his liberty. 

And at this point in my remarks, I desire to read the following extracts from 
a letter of Commodore Stockton, addressed to Daniel Webster in 1850: 

" 1. Of all the races of men with which history and travel have acquainted us, there is 
none so sunk beyood all hope of self-restoration as the African on his wide continent. In 
ignorance so utter, that he is elevated little above the brute ; in superstition so gross, that 
it drags him even lower tlian the brute without a thought of liberty, he is the sport of 
tyranny in its lowest, meanest, and most cruel forms; he has nothing' he can call his own; 
he has no idea of God, of justice, of moral obligation, of the rights of persons or property. 
In a word, 'Africa has long forgotten God, and God has abandoned Africa — but not, I 
trust forever.' From such a land and such a condition — sold, bartered away by his coun- 
trymen — the slave was brought to these shores while we were colonists and subject to 
British law. Here he is iu a civilized and Christian country' ; he has more opportunities 
of enlightenment than he would have had in Africa; he is, as a general rule, treated with 
kindness; he is protected from want iu sickness and old age; and is, on the whole, better 
otf, safer, happier, than he would have been in his native country. 

" 2. But, in the second place, with the moral character of the act biinging the slave to 
this country, we have nothing to do. We find him here ; the thing is done. So far as 
the slave-trade is concerned, we have acted on that, and abolished it. Slavery was in- 
troduced in other times and under other auspices. It existed wheu the Government was 
established; an institution wliich could not be got rid of — which had, of necessity, to be 
tolerated. Slaves had been made property in the colonies by British law. The Govern- 
ment found it an existing institution, and the Constitution left it so — of necessity impera- 
tive aud uncontrollable — to be acted on exclusively by the States; subject to the mold- 
ing and changing and controlling opinions and consciences of tliose concerned. ♦ 
"3. In the third place, every considerate man sees that, in the present condition of 
things, slavery cannot be immediately and absolutely abolished. V/e must reason about 
things as they are — not as we might wish them to be. The slave is property; he became 
so by a law of our common ancestors; he was left in that condition b_Y the law of our 
common fathers, who founded the Republic. The burden of this purchase should be borne, 
in all justice, equally by our citizens, and we are not ready to pay the price. But if we 
were ready, he is not in a condition to take care of himself He has not the culture, the 
training, the experience, necessary to self-dependence. Aud where is he to go? No re- 
flecting man is prepared to say he is willing to have three million slaves turned loose in 
the States, to till the prisons and poor-houses and alms-houses of the country, or to live 
by plunder ou the community. What, too, is to be his lot for the future in such a case? 
Is he to live in our midst as a marked and degraded being, through all time, or are we 
prepared to place him on an equality with us, civilly and socially ? Are we ready for 
amalgamation? 

^' \i the toleration of slavery — if the permission for its existence in any part of the 
Union was a great national crime — when, and by whom, was that crime committed? At 
the formation of the Government, at the adoption of the Constitution, and \>y the Wash- 
ingtous, the Roger Shermans, the Hamiltons, the Madisons, the Franklins, the Pinkneys, 
of the land — by such men as Livingston and Paterson, Brearly and Dayton of my own 
native State, approved and sanctioned with unparalleled unanimity b}^ the North and 
South. Under its auspices, I need not say with what giant strides the Republic has ad- 
vanced to greatness and prosperity, nor that Heaven has^ smiled propitiously upon our 
common heritage." 

Sir, I have no hesitation in asserting that the condition of the negroes in the 
South is far better than thousands and tens of thousands of those persons in the 
free States, who are dependant upon the avaricious monopolists and nabobs of 
the North for the small pittance they receive for their labor ; and who, with 
their families, are doomed to eat the bread of sorrow and poverty. Let the Re- 
dublican party, whose sympathies are so deeply excited in behalf of the negroes 



of the Soutb, go and look upon the paiipered thousands and tens of thousands of 
their white brethren, throuo-bout the northern States of the Confederacy, and 
bestow upon them their philanthropy and charity, instead of teaching their mis- 
guided people, by their doctrines and professed principles, to expend their money 
for pikes and Sharjt's rifles, with which to murder their brethren of the South. 
Let them go and expend their money and their sympathies upon the entiering 
thousands whose heart-rending wail is heard every day in the midst of their 
large cities. Let them go and minister to the wants of sutiering humanity at 
home, and let us and our domestics alone, who are never in want "for food, 
clothing, or shelter. 

The unfaltering determination evinced by the North to deprive us of our slave 
property, at the peril of our peace, our lives, our families, our homes, and the 
Union, manifested in so many unmistakable ways, has produced, in the bosom 
of a majority of the southern people, a feeling of dislike, yea, I may almost say, 
hatred, towards the people of the North. It is useless to diguise the fact. I 
announce it with emotions of regret. The southern people regard those men 
who are engaged in carrying on this " irrejiressible conflict" against them as 
■ their enemies. By the doctrines they inculcate they induce others to rob us of 
our property — they render it less secure every day; and let me assure you, in 
all honesty and sincerity, that unless this Black Repul.ilican party is disbanded, 
and its piogrnmme of principles and policy changed, self-preservation will im- 
periously demand a d'ssolution of our social, commercial, and Federal relations 
with the North, or a surrender of our property, and submission to the most 
humiliating inferiority. One or the other of these alternatives is inevitable ; 
which of the two we will accept, no man of honor or spirit can doubt. 

Sir, the people of the South everywhere are being fully aroused to the im- 
pending dangers that surround them. The innocent blood of Virginias sons is 
crying to them from the ground, and they know not but the day and the hour 
are near by when other portions of their fair heritage will be drenched in blood, 
and they shall hear, the agonizing cries, and bitter lamentations, of their own 
wives and ■children. Sir, I am no alarmist; I utter but the words of soberness 
and truth, when I aver that the great body of the southern people are firmly 
and resolutely resolved to submit to no additional infringements of their con- 
stitutional rights. They have yielded to the loss of one after another, until 
patriotic forbearance ceases to be a virtue. 

Now, sir, I desire simply to state (not argue) what the South demands, and 
is entitled to, if she is to be permitted to oocupy a position of equality with the 
rest of the Union ; 

1. That the fugitive slave act shall remain upon the statute-book, and be faith- 
fully executed. 

2. That the territories of the Unitnd States — being common property, held 
in trust by the General Government for the benefit and joint occupancy of the 
people of all the States — shall be free for the people of the South to take their 
slave property ; and, if necessary, the protection of the General Government 
shall be extended to it. 

3. That if other slave States shall be formed out of the common territory, 
with a constitution republican in form, they shall be admitted into the Union 
upon an equality with the thirteen original States. 

4. That slavery shall not be interfered with in the District of Columbia, or 
other territory of the United States, by the General Government. 

5. That there shall be no restriction upon the inter-State slave trade. 
These the southern States regard as great constitutional rights, necessary to 

the preservation of the South and her slave property ; and whenever denied, 
she will, in my opiniion, absolve herself, either by revolution or otherwise, 
from all allegiance to the Union, and take the consequences, whether for weal 
or woe. 



■MHHHBHBI 



6 

Sir, let me now. call tlie attention of tlie country to some of the rights that 
Lave been wretted from the slavehokling States, the denial of which would have pre- 
vented forever the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Did oar patriotic fathers 
ever sup])Ose that the time would come, in the history of this llepublie, when 
the people of one portion of the Confederacy would not be permitted to travel, 
either by water or land, through the other portion, with a female slave, to wait 
on their families, or nurse their children? If I desire to bring with me my 
wife and infant child to this District — the capital of the nation — that I may 
enjoy their society while I am here transacting the business of the country, I 
am compelled to go to Illinois or elsewhere, and hire a white servant, though I 
may have a dozen female slaves at home unemployed. The Constitution, I 
admit, authorizes me to bring my property here. But does not every man 
know, even the distinguished gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Corwin,) that it is 
inoperative for the protection of my slave property in passing through the free 
States, and especially Ohio? And who have brought about this diseased public 
sentiment, but the very party with whom that gentleman is now acting? Socie- 
ties are also formed in their midst, whose avowed purpose it is to send emissa- 
ries among us, to seduce and entice our slaves away ; material aid, conveyances, 
and protection, furnished to enable them to escape beyond our reach ; and the 
very thieves, their aiders and abetters, who are engaged in it, sustained and 
honored at the North. 

We aie boldly told upon this floor, in the tone of self-satisfaction, that if they 
see our property escaping from us they will not lift a hand to save it. This is 
evidently the feeling and sentiment of a majority of the Black Republican party 
of this ilouse, with whom the conservative gentleman from Ohio (Mr, Corwin) 
is acting, and seeking, by the influence of his great name and great talents, to 
elevate to the administration of this Government. And this same party 
publish and send among us incendiary books and papers calculated to incite 
our slaves to arson, murder, and insurrection. You associate in your plat- 
form polygamy Avith slavery, and denounce us as criminals and barbarians; and 
yet you call us your brethren; expect us to remain upon terms of social inter- 
course with you ; to patronize your merchants and workshops; to build up your 
cities, and enrich your people. If the southern people continue longer to do it, 
unless you change your conduct towards them, I can oidy say, that they igno- 
miniously " kiss the hand that smites them ;" and deserve, and should receive, 
the universal contempt and execration of mankind. 

But, sir, this is not all. Men from the North, educated in the school of 
Seward, Garrison, Phillips, and Beecher, and their allies, have invaded the ter- 
ritory of a sovereigQ State, murdered her citizens, and sought to place weapons 
in the hands of her slaves, with which to massacre her men, women, and chil- 
dren, and spread death and desolation throughout her borders. This infamous 
and atrocious act has been indorsed by a portion of the people in all the non- 
slaveholding States. The prominent actor in this deed of treason, murder, and 
insurrection, has been eulogized as a hero and proclaimed a martyr. On the 
day when he was required, by the violated laws and offended majesty of a 
sovereign State, to satisfy the just penalty of his enormous crimes, the " northern 
heart" manifested its grief, and poured out its sympathy for the thief and the 
murderer, by the tolling of bells, the firing of cannon, religious ceremonies, and 
public meetings, at which the entire South were denounced, in a spiri-t of unsur- 
passed bitterness and malignity. 

Now, sir, while I do not believe that the majority of tbe people of the North 
indorse or approve of the act of John Brown, yet it is evident that the infamous 
and atrocious sentiments enunciated by his sympathizers are the natural and 
legitimate fruits of the general and incessant war made upon the South by 
the Republiciin party and its adjuncts — Garrison, Phillips, Beecher, and their 
fanatical clan. 



The mission of the Black Republican party is to render slavery odious and 
detestable in the eyes of the northern people. They denounce the slaveholder 
in the most bitter and vindictive terms. They apply to him the most violent 
and opprobrious epithets, by speech and resolution, in the pulpit and the press. 
And thus they sink the character of the southern people in the estimation of 
the North, and produce in their bosoms feelings of rancor and hate ; and, in 
consequence of this course of conduct, similar teeliugs are excited in the breast 
of the southern people against them ; that feeling is unquestionably increasing 
in the South to the most fearful extent. 

I novr predict, that unless a revolution shall take place in the public senti- 
ment of the North, (of which I have no hope,) vsrithin the next twelve mouths, 
no man, trading from that section of the Union, will be permitted to travel 
through the southern States, unless he brings with him evidences of conserva- 
tive feeHngs and sentiments towards the people of the South and its domestic 
institutions. Self-protection will impose upon the South the necessity of such 
action. 

Senator Wade, of Ohio, the representative of the Black Republican party of 
that State, said, in 1856 : 

"There is really no TJnion now between the North and the South ; and he believed that 
no two nations upon the earth entertain feelings of more bitter rancor towards each other 
than these two nations of tlie Itepublic " 

Sir, I concur with that Senator, and aver that, in my opinion, this hostility 
between the North and the South — I mean that portion of the North that 
belongs to the Seward and Garrison school of politics — is equally as strong as 
that which existed between the people of the colonies and England during'our 
revolutionary struggle. We think that your actual and purposed violation of 
our legal and constitutional rights, considering the relation that we sustain to 
you, is more oppi'essive and insufferable than those committed by the mother 
country against the colonies ; and if you shall succeed in obtaining the control 
of this Government, and seek to enforce your avowed slave policy — as I under- 
stand it, and as I shall presently present it — I cannot see how the South, if true 
to her rights, her honor, and her self-respect, can submit. She cannot, she will 
not, be forced to remain in the Union, except upon terms of equality. The 
southern people are warmly devoted to the Union and the Constitution, with its 
guarantees enforced. They remember with holy aftectiou the mighty sacrifices 
that were made, the priceless blood tliat was shed, to achieve it. they dwell 
with delight upon the glorious associations and hallowed memories that cluster 
around it. Thay appreciate, in all its length and breadth, the value of the 
Union. But when it fails to afibrd to them'^ their families, and their property, 
the security and protection which it was designed to do ; when its plain provis- 
ions are perverted, and made the instruments of their oppression, they will not, 
they ought not, to hesitate for a single moment to sever every tie that binds 
them to the Union. 

I am not, sir, to be regarded as a disunionist. I pray God that the day may 
never come when this Union shall be dissolved. I fervently hope that the 
"sober second thought" of the people of the non-slaveholding States will ena- 
ble them to see the breakers ahead that must inevitably dash the ship of State 
to atoms, and that they will speedily reverse their action, observe the guarantees 
of the Constitution, and again seek to restore the fraternal feeling \hat once 
existed between the northern and southern sections of the Confederacy. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, I desire to state distinctly to the-House and the country, 
what we of the South understand the legislative programme of the Black Re- 
publican party to be, should they obtain^ the coutiol of the Government; it is — 

1. To abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. 

2. To exclude slavery from all the Territories of the United States, and 
thereby restrict it to its present limits. 



8 ' 

S. To prohibit the slave-trade between the States. 

4. To repeal the fugitive slave act, or so modify its provisions as to render it 
inoperative. 

5. To remodel the Supreme Court of the United States, if necessary, for the 
accomplishment of these purposes. 

That these unconstitutional and oppressive measures will be adopted, should 
they obtain the control of all the departments of the Government, I conclude is 
evident, not only from the declaration of their leaders, but from the principles 
which they avow. The declared and fundamental axioms of their creed are : 
''That all men, without distinction of color, are entitled to the enjoyment of 
liberty. That the institution of slavery is a sin ; that slavery is a relic of bar- 
barism ; that it is a crime against God and man ; that it is founded in injustice 
and cruelty; that it shall and must be abolished." Entertaining these false 
and fanatical heresies, appealing as they do to the worst passioos and prejudices 
of the northern people, driving them onward, step by step, in their mad career, 
I must confess that I see but little hope for the perpetuation of this^ Union. 
They ought to know, and do know, that the southern people never can, and 
never will, submit to the enforcement of their creed. They ought to know, and 
do know, that the principles and policy for which they are contending, will, if 
reduced to practice, disrupt every tie that exists between the two sections of the 
Confederacy, and rend assunder every ligament that binds this Union together. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, I desire to call the attention of the country to the prin- 
ciples, declarations, and purposes of the leaders of the Black Republican party, 
as expressed by themselves, in order that I may not be charged with having 
misrepresented them : 

Senator Wilson, Republican, of Massachusetts, said : 

" Let us remember that more than three million bondmen, groaning under nameless 
■woes, demand that we shall cease to reprove each other, and that we labor for their de- 
liverance. 

"I tell you here to-night, that the agitation of this question of human slavei-y will 
continue while the foot of a slave presses the soil of the American Republic. 

"We shall change the Supreme Court of the United States, and place men in that court 
who believe with its pure and immaculate Chief Justice, John Jay, that our prayers will 
be impious to Heaven, while we sustain and support human slavery." 

Senator Sumner, Republican, of Massachusetts, said : 

"The good citizen, as he reads the requirements A f this act, (the fugitive slave,) is 
filled with horror." * * * " Here the path of duty is clear. I am bound to disobey 
this act. * * « "Sir, I will not dishonor this home of the Pilgrims and of the Revo- 
lution by admitting — nay, I cannot believe — that this bill will "be executed here." — 
Charles Sumner, October, 1S50, in Boston, and August 26, 1852, in the United States 
Senate. 

Senator Sumxer, November, 1855 : 

"Not that I love the Union less, but freedom more, do I now, in pleading this great 
cause, insist that freedom, at all hazards, shall be preserved." 

William H. Seward, Republican, in the Senate of. the United States, said : 

"The Constitution regulates our stewardship. The Constitution devotes the domain 
to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare, to liberty. But there is a higher law than 
the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the 
same purposes." 

Josiah Quincy, a Republican, of Boston : 

" The obligation incumbent on the free States to deliver up fugitive slaves is that bur- 
den, and it must be obliterated from the Constitution at every hazard." 

Horace Mann, a Republican, of Massachusetts, said : 

"I have only to add, under a full sense of my responsibility to my country and my 
God, I deliberately say, better disunion, better a civil or servile war, better anything 
that God in his providence shall send, than an extension of the bounds of slavery." 



9 

Mr. BrRLiKGAME, a Republican Congressman, said : 

"The times demand, and we must have, an anti-slavery Constitution, an anti-slavery 
Bible, and an anti-slavery God." 

BuRLisGAME, again : 

"When v:c shall have elected a President, as we will, who will not be the President of 
a party, nor of a section, but the tribune of a people; and after we have exterminated a 
few more miserable doughfaces from the North, then, if the slave Senate Avill not give 
way, we will grind it between the upper and nether millstones of our power." 

Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, a leading Republican of the West, said : 

"I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I 
do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will be- 
come all one thing or the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that the course of 
ultimate extinction, or its advocates will pusli forward till it shall become alike lawful in 
all the States — old as well as new, IS"orth as well as South." 

General James Watson Webb, a Republican leader, said, in the Philadelphia 
convention : 

"If we (meaning the Abolitionists) fail there, (at the ballot box,) what then^ "We will 
drive it (slavery) back, sword in hand, and, so help me God! believing that to be right, 
I am with them." 

Horace Greeley, a Republican : 

"I have no doubt but the free and slave vStates ought to be separated. The Union is 
not worth supporting in connection with the South." 

General James Watson Webb, a Republican editor : 

"On the action of this (the Republican) convention, depends the fate of the country; 
if the Republicans fail at the ballot box, we will be forced to drive back the slaveocracy 
with fire and sword." 

The New York Tribune, while the Nebraska bill was before Congress : 

"Better that confusion should ensue;- better that discord should reign in the national 
councils; better that Congress should break up in wild disorder; nay, better that the 
Capitol itself should blaze by the torch of the incendiary, or fall and bury all its inmates 
beneath its crumbling ruins, than that this perfidy and wrong should be finally accom- 
plished." 

Judge Spalding, of Ohio, in the Republican convention : 

"In the case of the alternative being presented of the continuance of slavery or a dis- 
solution of the Union, I am for dissolution, and I care not how quick it comes." 

These declarations of the leaders and organs of that party conclusively prove 
that it is their determined purpose never to cease their assaults upon the insti- 
tution of slavery until it is abolished (peaceably if they can, forcibly if they 
must) or the Union dissolved. 

Sii', we are told by Republicans in this House, and the aiders, abettons, and 
sympathizers of their party, in my own district and State, that the leaders of 
the Democratic party and such politicians as myself, outside of that organiza- 
tion, are responsible for the slavery agitation with all its fearful consequences. 

I propose, for a moment, to examine into this responsibility, and ascertain, if 
I can, where it rests. I remark, sir, that the first serious agitation of the 
rights-of slaveholders commenced in 1820, when my own State, with a consti- 
tution, republican in form, applied for admission into the Union. She was re- 
sisted by the Senators and Representatives of the free States on account of her 
slavery toleration. A violent and fearful struggle ensued which was finally set- 
tled by the adoption of the unjust and unconstitutional Missouri restriction, 
prohibiting slavery north of 36° 30'. Mr. Jetferson, knowing that the southern 
people were joint owners with the northern people in all the territories of the 
Union, and entitled to an equal participation in the enjoyment thereof, never 
uttered a truer prediction than when he said, in reference to the Missouri 
restriction, that — 



" A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once 
conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated, and every 
new irritation will mark it deeper'aud deeper." 

And in the same connection, he said : 

"I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves, by 
the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to 
be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons; and my only con- 
solation is, that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the 
blessings they will throw away against an abstract principle, more likely to' be effected 
bj' union than by secession, they would pause before they would perpetrate this act of 
suicide on themselves, and treason against the hopes of the world." 

To qu-et this agitation, and save the Union from anarchy and civil war, the 
South patriotically surrendered her just rights, and yielded up to the people of 
the North the occupation of the entire territory uortli of 36° 30', The people 
ot the North, however, were not satisfied with this humiliating concession on 
the part of the people of the slaveholding States. Abolition societies were 
soon formed ; the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was denianded 
throughout the North ; abolition petitions by the thousand were poured in upon 
Congress ; and the slavery agitation continued increasing, year after year, up to 
1850, when the dangerous doctrines and unjust exactions of the North came 
nfear culminating in the dissolution of the Union ; wdien another compromise 
was again effected, by another sacrifice on the part of the South, by the admis- 
sion of California as a free State, before she had even been organized into a 
Territory. 

This compromise, solemnly agreed upon by the statesmen of the North and 
the South, as a final adjustment of the slavery question, produced but little 
abatement in the terrific storm that had been gatlieriug in the North for years, 
through the instrumentality of William H. Seward, Wilson, Sumner, and 
their abolition confederates, I should remark, however, as I pass along, that in 
1848, at Cleveland, Mr, Sewabd made the following proclamation to the people 
of the non-slaveholding States : 

"Slavery can be limited to its present bounds ; it can be ameliorated. It can be and it 
7nust be abolished, and you and I can and must do it. The task is as simple and easy as 
its consummation will be benificent and its reward glorious. It requires to follow only 
this simple rule of action : to do everywhere and on every occasion what we can, and 
not to neglect or refuse to do what we can, at any time, because, at that precise time, 
and on that particular occasion, we cannot do more. Circumstances determine possibil- 
ities." ************** 

"Correct your own error, that slavery has constitutional guarantees which may not be 
released, and ought not to be relinqxiislied." * * * "You will soon bring 
the parties of the countrj" into an effective aggression upon slavery." 

Such, sir, was the ominous language of the embodiment of Black Piepubli- 
canism — "slavery must be abolished," not limited, "and you and I can and 
will do it. You will* soon bring the parties of the country into an etiective 
aggression upon it." The avowed object of Mr. Seward then was, and still is, 
a continued aggressive war upon the constitutional guarantees of slavery, which 
he and his satellites, backed by the diseased public sentiment of the northern 
people, are urging on, with the most reckless pertinacity and resolute determi- 
nation, to its final result — the dissolution of the Union. 

In 1851, a few months after the compromise measures were adopted, we hear 
the honorable Senator, Henry Wilson, from Massachusetts, at an abolition 
festival in the city of Boston, thus speak : 

"Sir, allusion has been made, to-night, to the small beginning of tlie great anti -slavery 
movement, twenty years ago, when the Liberator was launched upon the tide. These 
years have been years of devotion and of struggles, unsurpassed in any age or in any 
cause. But, notwithstanding the treachery of public men, notwithstanding the apostaey 
for which the year 1850 was distinguished, I venture to say that the cause of liberty is 
spreading throughout the whole land, and that the day is not far distant when brilliant 
victories for freedom will be won. We shall arrest the extension of slavery, and rescue 



ii 

the Government from the grasp of the slave power. We shall blot out slavery in the 
national capital. We shall then appeal to hearts and consciencies of men, and in a few- 
years, notv.'ithstanding the immense interests combined in the cause of oppression, we 
shall give liberty to the millions in bondage. (Hear, hear.) I trust that many of us will 
live to see the chain stricken from the limbs of the last bondman in the Republic! But, 
sir, whenever the day shall come, living or dead, no name connected with the anti-slavery 
movement will be dearer to the enfranchised millions than the name of your guest, Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison. (Prolonged applause.)" 

Thus you perceive that this shivery agitation and excitement was still kept 
up by the distinguished men of the North, notwithstanding the compromise 
measures of 1850 ; and you hear one of the great leaders of the Black Repub- 
lican party, second only in command to William H. Seward, eulogizing in the 
most eloquent and enthusiastic terms, William Lloyd Garrison, the advocate of 
doctrines and principles that lead to the commission of treason, murders, and 
insurrection in the South. You hear this Senator, in the city of Boston, the 
great metropolis of Massachusetts, once, not now, renowned for her patriotism, 
her devotion to the Union and Constitution, announcing to the people of that 
ancient Commonwealth : 

"We shall arrest the extension of slavery and rescue the Government from the grasp 
of the slave power; we shall blot out slavery in the national capital ; we shall surround 
the slave States with a cordon of free States ; we shall then appeal to the hearts and 
consciences of men; and, in a few years, notwithstanding the immense interest combined 
in the cause of oppression, we shall give liberty to millions." 

And yet we, who lift our voices in defence and vindication of our just and 
constitutional' rights — yea, our homes and firesides — are denounced by those 
who call themselves the conservative men of the North and the South, as " agi- 
tators" — yes, we must fold our ai'ms and wrap ourselves up in the cloak of 
"conservative dignity," and wait until the incendiary's toich is applied. God 
save me and my constituents from such conservatism ! If the people of the 
North will attend to their own legitimate business, and let us and ours alone, 
the troubled v/aters will soon subside, and peace and tranquility, fraternal feel- 
ing and happiness, reign throughout this mighty empire. Sir, if this Uuiou is 
lost, the responsibility, in time and eternity, will rest with all its crushing weight 
upon the heads of the northern people. 

Sir, I should have remarked, in order of time, that, as far back as 1848, the 
great leader and representative of the Black Republican party, said, at Rochester: 

"Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think that it is accidental, 
unnecessarj', the work of intei'ested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mis- 
take the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring 
forces ; it means that the United States miist and will, either sooner or later, become either 
entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation. Either the cotton and rice 
fields of Soutli Carolina and the sugar jdantations of Louisiana will untirnately be tilled 
by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandize 
alone, or else the vye and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be 
surrendered by their farmers to slave culture and to the production of slaves, and Boston 
and New York become once more markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men." 

Sir, does not every man know that William H. Seward never believed that 
the United States would ever become an entirely slaveholding nation? Did he 
not know, that the people of the slaveholding States, had never intimated a desire 
to introduce slaveiy into any of the free States of the Union ; that they attended 
to their own affairs, and did not meddle with the internal concerns of other Stales ? 
Did he not know that slavery would never exist in any country or climate where 
it was not profitable ? What, then, did he mean by the "irrepressible conflict 
between opposing and enduring forces?" lie simply meant that there was to 
be an unceasing war v/aged by the people of the North agr.inst the South, and 
that it could never be repressed. He meant it as an appeal to the North to 
unite her forces for a mighty onset upon the institution of slavery — an enduring 
and deadly conflict, in which he expected that victory would perch upon the 



12 

black and blood-stained banner of the North. And yet, with the voice of the 
coininander ringing in our ears, and the gathering storm in sight, we are told 
that if we warn the people of the South, of approaching danger, we are " agi- 
tators." 

Sir, what do we behold in this House ? A powerful sectional party, with not 
a representative from the fifteen slaveholding States upon this floor, with but 
one vitalizing idea in their platform, " the abolition of slavery in the United 
States," marching on with triumphal strides to take possession of this Govern- 
ment, and by a foul and perverted use of its machinery to crush out the life- 
blood of the South ; to wrest from her people their constitutional rights, and 
drench the hearthstones of her citizens with blood. And yet we, who are seek- 
ing to defeat them and prevent, if possible, the terrible consequences that threaten 
us, are charged with being "agitators." Sir, I must confess that I never see or 
hear the charge made, in a slave State, without having my suspicions aroused 
that those who make it, sym.pathize with Black Republicanism, and secretly desire 
the success of that party, without having the frankness to avow it. 

Mr. Chairman, I was raised and educated a Whig, taught the science of poli- 
tics in the school of Clay and Webster, and ever delighted to march under 
their standard and fight for the American and national principles that were 
emblazoned upon their banners. The Whig party was emphatically a national 
party from its infancy to the day of its dissolution. Patriotism, conservatism, 
harmony, and union were among the distinguishing characteristics of that great 
party. It embraced within its patriotic arms the entire Union ; it knew no 
North, no South, no East, no West ; it stood firmly and persistently by the 
Constitution and the Union ; it inculcated the principles of strict obedience to 
the Constitution, the laws, and the treaties of the United States; it deprecated 
all interference growing out of the relation of master and servant ; it abhorred 
sectionalism, and sought to encourage fraternal intercourse and strengthen fra- 
ternal feelings among all the citizens of this Confederacy. Its paramount object 
was the prosperity and greatness, peace and happiness, of this Republic. I re- 
joice to say that it left the impress of its principles and policy, to some extent, 
upon the face of the nation. I remember, with pride and satisfaction, that I 
was the standard-bearer of that party for four presidential campaigns, in my 
electoral district, and bore triumphantly the banner of Clay, Scott, Taylor, and 
Fillmore; and I regret to say that it was the only district in my State that cast 
its electoral vote for those distinguished men. I clung to the fortunes of that 
party through all its vicissitudes, until the fatal hour when it was erabiaced by 
the leprous arms of Black Republicanism; and then I heard, with mingled 
emotions of grief and indignation, the knell of its dissolution. 

When that party of undying principles ceased to exist, I united my political 
fortunes with the American party, embraced its principles, stood upon its plat- 
form, and battled for its success. After a few brief years, I found its camp sur- 
rounded by the enemies of the Constitution and the Union, with the hateful 
banner of sectionalism and abolitionism thrown to the breeze, with the mottoes 
inscribed thereon, " Slavery must be abolished : you and I must do it" — " No 
more slave territory" — "No more slave States admitted into the Union" — "No 
fugitive slave act" — " No peace, no security to slaveholders" — the northern wing 
of that party turned traitor to its principles, the Constitution, and the Union, 
and marched into the ranks of the " irrepressible conflict" party ; the southern 
wing, bold and patriotic, stood to their arms until the American people passed 
upon their principles the verdict of condemnation. Thus repulsed and cut to 
pieces, that army, too, has disbanded; and its scattered forces and dismembered 
fragments are now driven to the necessity, of enlisting under some other poHtical 
banner. 

There is, at the present time, but one great party resisting ^he aggressions of 
this destructive, sectional, anti-slavery party. It is a party that Whigs and 



13 

Americans, shoulder to shoulder, have resolutely fought for a quarter of a cen- 
tury, upou many political battle-tields ; a party towards whom they and I have 
entertained the most bitter animosities and violenc prejudices; a party that they 
and I have denounced from the most patriotic instincts. A proper regard, how- 
ever, for truth, compels us to admit that under their administration of theGov- 
ernment, checked and controlled, in no small degree, by the doctrines of the 
Whig party, we have risen to the proudest eminence of any nation on earth, in 
all that constitutes true greatness and prosperity. Though their policy, in my 
judgment, was frequently wrong and reckless, yet tliey have ever stood firmly 
by the Constitution and the Union. They have ever contended for a strict con- 
struction of the Constitution — the only safety of the Union — and maintained 
the sovereignty and equality of the States; and they are, to-day, the only party 
in existence that can (if such a thing be possible) resist successfully the Black 
Republican party ; the only party that can save the South from the horrors of 
a civil and servile war; that can roll back the toirent of Sewardism and fanati- 
cism that is rapidly hurrying us on towards a most fatal termination of our 
national grandeur and greatness ; that can restore peace and tranquility to the 
turbulent agitations of the public mind ; the only party whose principles are 
boldly proclaimed and defended in every part of this Union, from Maine to 
Louisiana, on the Atlantic and the Pacific; whose organization exists every- 
where, throughout the length and breadth of this land. It stands by the South 
on the great issues of the day. To the aid and assistance of the Democratic 
party, from patriotic necessity, if not from choice, I invite you to come. 

In my estimation, the slavery question, with all its bearings, transcends, in 
magnitude and importance, all other questions. Upon its constitutional adjust- 
ment is suspended the Union; hence all others sink into insignificance when 
compared with it. The approaching political contest will be the most important 
and fetirful one that has occurred since the foundation of this Government. 
Upon its result (mark my word) hangs the destiny of this Republic. If the 
Black Republican party shall succeed in that contest, and then attempt to carry 
out their policy, you may rest assured that the South will resist, to the last ex- 
tremity. Will not, then, the Whigs and Americans of the entire South, impelled 
by their patriotic devotion to the Constitution and the Union, lay their preju- 
dices and animosities upon the altar of their country, and cooperate with the 
Democratic party in placing a national man, one who will administer the Gov- 
ernment upon biX)ad and national principles, in the presidential chair? 

Sir, I have the right to appeal to the Whigs and Americans of my own dis- 
trict and State, who know me well and have known me long ; and to-day, speak- 
ing from the capital of this agitated nation, I invoke them, by their attachment 
to the Constitution and the Union, by the memories of their patriotic sires, by all 
the hallowed associations that cluster around the battle-fields of the Revolution, 
by the prayers and tears of the oppressed of other nations, whose eyes and hearts 
are turned to the example of this Republic, as the only hope of their elevation 
in the tide of time, to act with the national Democratic party, at least in the 
coming contest. I do not insist on your becoming members of that party ; but 
I do call upou you in this, the hour of our country's extremity, to cooperate 
with them, and not to give aid and comfort, by division, to the Black Republi- 
can party. 

1 know that, by the conjoint eftbrts of some of the leaders of the late Ameri- 
can and Republican parties, an eftbrt is being made in my State to organize 
what they call an "Opposition party." There was a meeting held in the city 
of St. Louis, the great commercial metropolis of my own State, on the 30th of 
November last, by the members of the American party and the Black Republi- 
cans, at which various speeches were made, by some of the distinguished mem- 
bers of the Amerioan party, urging the propriety of organizing an " Opposition 
party," to meet at the city of Jefferson, and select men to carry the banner of 



14 

the "Opposition" in the next gubernatorial contest. And at least one-half of 
the delegates to that convention were Black Republicans ; several of them dis- 
tiDguished men of that party, among whom was the Hon. Francis P. Blair, for- 
mer member of Congress, and B. Gratz Bi'own, former editor of the Democrat, 
and Charles L. Bernay, editor of the Anzeigen, two as rabid Black Republican 
papers as there are in the West. With these men T and my American friends 
were asked to assemble around the political council board. 

Sir, the great body of the American party will never so f;\r forget the interests 
of their State and country, that loyalty due to the Constitution and Union, as 
to act with a party of men who belong to the "irrepressible conflict" sectional 
party. Sir, I can assure them that they will call in vain, so far as the Ameri- 
cans of my district are concerned, with the exception of a few, who have, for 
many years, carried about with them the odor of Black Republicanism. Sir, 
Missouri will stand firmly by the South. Though assailed on three sides by the 
abolitionized Black Republican paity of two States and two Territories, she will 
proudly maintain her allegiance to the Constitution and the Union. Sir, the 
people of Missouri are strongly attached to the South and its institutions; and 
she will stand unfalteringly by, and share with her in all the trials and difficul- 
ties that await her, in sunshine or storm, in adversity or prosperity, in weal or 
woe. Missouri has forever liidced her destiny with her southern tisters, and 
when they fall she falls; when the northern array of the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania shall undertake to cross her domain, to " whip" the southern people into 
subjection to their tyranny, they will find it necessary to send on a second army 
to gather up the bones of the first, before they ever reach the fairer fields of the 
South. 

Sir, my American friends say that they are opposed to the corruption and 
extravagance of the Democratic party. Admit it: so am I. But is it not in- 
finitely better to submit to it than place this Government in the hands of a 
party who disregard the provisions of the Constitution, and whose principles 
and policy lead to the destruction of !|4, 000,000,000 worth of property in fifteen 
of the States of this Union, and, with that, the Union itself; and who, I doubt 
not would administer this Government more, corruptly and extravagantly than 
any Administration that ever preceded it? Were there not corruptions and 
mal-administration in some of the departm-^nts of the Government, it would be 
unlike all other administrations that have preceded it, either in Europe or this 
country. There ever has been, and ever will be, corruptions in all governments 
with so much machinery as ours, administered by fallen man. Let us aid the 
honest men of the party in correcting the abuses into which the Government 
has fallen. But, sir, allow me to say that, in my estimation, this is not a valid 
objection to our cooperating with them in the maintenance of great principles, 
essential to the preservation of the Union and the just and equal^articipation 
of all the States in the rights and blessings secured by the Constitution. 

Sir I learn that it is the meditated purpose of the scattered forces of the 
American party to unite in the formation of a new party, to be called the 
"Union party."" Where, sir, I inquire, are the materials to be found sufiicieut, 
now almost upon the eve of a great contest, for the formation of a party, that 
shall withstand this northern array, of political Goths and Vandals that are now 
precipitating themselves upon the Constitution and the Union ? "Will you find 
them in theNorth; from what party are they to come? You cannot expect 
them from the Democratic part)'. The northern wing of that organization is 
composed of the firmest and most unyielding men, in my opinion, that have 
existed since the foundation of this Government. Sir, they are men of sterling 
and indomitable principles and patriotism — men who have been purified by the 
fires of persecution through which they have passed. The men who can now 
stand up in the non-slaveholding States and defend the South, and demand that 
her constitutional rights shall be sustained, are men who will never leave the 



15 

party under whose Laimers tLey have foiio'lit so long and so nobly ; much less 
will they ever unite with a party of men wiio expect to obtain recruits iVoin the 
sectional army 'who have so lono; sought to dig their political graves. No, sir, 
let not demagogues and politicians deceive you. If the Whig party could not 
be sustained iu the noa-slaveholdiug States — a purer and better Union party 
than will ever exist again in this country — tell me how can you expect to form- 
a party now, in the present unsound political condition of the North, that will 
guaranty to the South her constitutional rights ? It cannot be done. 

Sir, we had a specimen of their I'eliability during the ballot for Speaker. The 
People's party of Pennsylvania pledged their votes for the honorable gentleman 
from Xorth Carolina, (Mr. Smith,) the Opposition candidate and old-line Whig, 
When the honorable gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. Mallory.) as the orgau 
of the Opposition party, put him iu nomination, a DeniQcrat inquired if he 
could obtain votes sufficient to put him within the reach of the Democratic 
party ? The gentleman from Kentucky, trusting to the deliberate and solemn 
pledges of his anti-slavery, Union allies, answered very emphatically, " that he 
could." Then an opportunity to quiet, to some extent, the fearful forebodings 
of the public mind, and for party men to make an exhibition of patriotism, was 
presented, such as is seldom witnessed in the lifetime of a nation. The Demo- 
cratic party, rising above mere selfish ambition and a desire for party triumph 
and aggrandizement, most nobly and proudly met the crisis. Sir, they rose in 
the majesty of pure patriotism and loyal devotion to the country, and every man 
of that party from the fifteen slaveholding States, and all from the North, 
(except three,) brought their tribute of partisanship and sclfishuess, and burned 
it here a consecrated sacrifice, for their country's safety and peace, and thereby, 
in the estimation of a great people, covered themselves with imperishable honor. 

No sooner was it whispered around this Hall that Mr. Smith, of North Caro- 
lina, the only representative upon this floor of that old and honored, but now 
scattered and dismembered, Whig party, was elected to the Speakership, than 
the pretended repi'esentatives of the " northern conservative Union element," 
who were to be the nucleus in the non-slavebolding States, around whom this 
Union party was to gather, rose from their seats, one after another, and changed 
their votes from the distinguished Whig to a Black Piepublican, thereby defeat- 
ing the election of Mr. Smith. Are these the sectional men into whose hands 
my American friends are willing to intrust the destiny of the South, the Con- 
stitution and Union ? Sir, I boldly announce from this Hall to-day, to my con- 
stituents, that the only party in all the North, true to the. Constitution and the 
equaliiy of the States — who know no North, no South — is the Democratic party. 
Let the Ani'^rican party, then, at least in the approaching State and Presidential 
elections, exhibit their patriotism and anxious desire for the perpetuation of the 
Union, by cooperating with the national Democratic party. Let all the Union 
men, everywhere throughout the entire country, band together during this fear- 
ful struggle, under the banner of that pari}', and make one mighty effort to save 
our country from the grasp of a sectional party. Let the South, at least, pre- 
sent the admiring spectacle, of a united people, in defence of the Constitution and 
the Union ; not united, if you choose, upon the subject of Slavery, or any sec- 
tional policy, but united in resistance to the aggressive and unconstitutional 
policy, of the Black Republican party. 

Sir, it is well enough for us to remember that more than eighty years ago, this 
Governraeut was organized by the sages of the Revolution, with a population of 
less than three million of inhabitants, and thirteen States, spaisely populated. 
Under the Constitution adopted by them, we have increased to near thirty mil- 
lion inhabitants and thirty-three States ; we have become a great and powerful 
nation; we are still a united people; but there is a rumbling volcano beneath 
our feet whose pent-up fires, if fanned but a little more, will burst out with a 
fury that will consume this Union. Sir, ray sincere hope is, that such a catas- 



16 

troplie may never happen. My ardent prayer to the sovereign Ruler of the 
universe is, that the sun of American liberty may never set; that this great 
confederation of States may march on, step by step, year after year, century 
after century, to still greater advancements, in all that constitutes the happiness oi 
a people, and the glory of a great nation, and yet present to the admiring gaze 
of the Old World the sublime spectacle of hundreds of millions of free, intelli- 
gent, hat>py beings. 

But, sir, whether or not this shall be our destiny, depends upon the virtue, 
intelligence, and forbearance of the American people, and the sacred regard that 
the North shall manifest for the constitutional rights of the South. Can it be, 
sir, that we are to fall from our elevated position ? Is this proud fabric of Gov- 
eruraent to be torn down ? Is this Union, cemented by the blood of our fathers, 
to be destroyed by the folly and fanaticism of northern demagogues ? No ; I 
will not, I cannot believe it. May the Almighty, in the extension of that mercy 
and protection which has been thus far vouchsafed to us, cause that flag which 
waved over the army of Washington, and that has ever since continued to wave 
triumphantly over sea and land, to float, for long ages, over the Capital of this 
great nation, fanned by the zephyrs of heaven, freighted with love and mercy, 
with no rent in it, and no star blotted out ; and that star after star, (representing 
other States yet to be formed,) may, in future years, be added to the bright con- 
stellation, until all the inhabitants of this continent shall enjoy the civil and 
religious blessings so necessary to the honor and happiness of man. 

Now, sir, in conclusion, I desire to announce, upon this occasion, in order thai 
the declaration may reach the ears of my constituents, that my political ambi- 
tion is satisfied — yea, more tiiau satisfied ; that I have no longer any desire foi 
official station ; and that when this Congress terminates, I hope to retire to th( 
peaceful and tranquil walks of private life, and there spend the residue of mj 
days in the bosom of ray family, my friends, and the constituents who have sc 
highly honored me and the Union. 



